Booth Gardner | Wash. ex-governor, 76

Booth Gardner, 76, a two-term Democratic governor who later in life spearheaded a campaign that made Washington the second state in the country to legalize assisted suicide for the terminally ill, died Friday at his Tacoma home after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.

"We're very sad to lose my father, who had been struggling with a difficult disease for many years, but we are relieved to know that he's at rest now and his fight is done," said Gail Gant, Gov. Gardner's daughter, in a statement.

The millionaire heir to the Weyerhaeuser timber fortune led the state from 1985 to 1993 following terms as Pierce County executive, state senator, and business school dean. He was the state's 19th governor.

Since then, he had worked as a U.S. trade ambassador in Geneva, in youth sports and for a variety of philanthropic works. But his biggest political effort in his later years was his successful "Death with Dignity" campaign in 2008 that ultimately led to the passage of the controversial law that mirrored a law that had been in place in Oregon since 1997.

The law allows terminally ill adults with six months or less left to live to request a lethal dose of medication from their doctors.

Gov. Gardner knew that he wouldn't qualify to use the law because Parkinson's disease, while incurable, is not fatal. But at the time, he said his worsening condition made him an advocate for those who want control over how they die.

"It's amazing to me how much this can help people get peace of mind," Gov. Gardner said at the time. "There's more people who would like to have control over their final days than those who don't."

The Washington law took effect in March 2009, and since then more than 250 people have used it to obtain lethal doses of medication.

A documentary about that campaign, The Last Campaign of Booth Gardner, was nominated for an Academy Award in 2010.

- AP